Tag Archives for american airlines.
Compensation may not be gone for good. The airline appears to be surveying what sort of compensation they should be offering. The new options aren’t likely to incur liability on the airline’s books – although they may add crowding to the start of the boarding process, and to the airline’s lounges, at precisely the time when the airline’s best customers will value distancing most.
As airlines move away from inflight alcohol to save money, soft drink selection takes on greater importance.
For domestic flights and for international flights departing the U.S. there appear to be ‘supply chain issues’. Flight attendants have been told that while “[o]n June 1, we began transitioning from Sierra Mist to Sprite” individual flights now may have either one but not both. And Sprite Zero may be replaced with Sprite.
This weekend, both United Airlines and American Airlines updated their schedules for July, whereas Delta jumped ahead of the curve and loaded their July schedules 2 weeks ago. There are now many airports where Delta used to reign that American isn’t just bigger – but bigger than Delta and United combined.
Both American and Southwest are positioned to be far larger than their competitors, which will either position them to become more effective businesses going forward or turn out to be a gamble that burns through substantial cash.
American, which has a policy of expiring miles in accounts that have been inactive for 18 months, announced that they’d pause expiring miles through June 30. American confirms they’re prepared to start expiring miles again July 1.
The airline industry makes for strange bedfellows.
Delta is rushing to save a key American Airlines partner, because that keeps it from being on the hook to repay the loan they guaranteed. However if they fail they will take partial ownership in Gol’s frequent flyer program, a key American Airlines partnership.
Effective Monday American Airlines has taken away the tool airports, flight attendants, and reservations used to compensate customers when a crew member spills a drink on them, their seat is broken, or their inflight meal didn’t get loaded onto the aircraft.
To save money, instead of compensating customers when things go wrong, employees are supposed to show they care and acknowledge what the customer is saying… just not do anything about it.
American Airlines announced a huge leadership reorganization today, resulting from its effort to shed at least 30% of management staff. A number of Vice Presidents and Senior Vice Presidents are leaving – with voluntary exit packages more generous than what’s previously been disclosed publicly as part of this program – and that has meant reshuffling leadership roles.
American Airlines is building is schedule back up domestically for July, re-opening Admirals Clubs, and improving its change fee waiver – while re-asserting one element of restrictions attached to its basic economy fares.
Starting today there are several changes to American Airlines catering: more hand sanitizer and substantial changes to beverage service.
I’ve been consistently hearing from American Airlines employees that several Admirals Clubs are expected to open in June. I’ve heard about major hub clubs, and the dates being offered are late in the month.
Asked about what I’ve been hearing, an American Airlines spokesperson offered “We hope to have more information to share this week.”
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
